BuckJr;2220181; said:
The thing that made this game so much sweeter is that its Denard Robinson's birthday.
Happy Birthday Denard, im sure you enjoyed all the presents tonight.
Got home from the game a little while ago. Dick Vitale was at the pep rally Friday and mentioned the birthday. The student section in South Bend sang Happy Birthday to Denard after the game
It was a lot of fun despite the lack of offense.
Overall I was happy with the defense's performance. The front 7 did a good job to contain the running game and cause pressure, only giving up a few longer runs and one that resulted in a field goal late. I was worried that our young and inexperienced secondary was going to be an issue, especially how poorly our experienced cornerbacks gave up the big plays in the 4th quarter last year. No way I could have predicted 5 INTs in the first half. The secondary stepping up was the biggest surprise for me, I wasn't too worried about Michigan's running game. The only other surprise defensively was that we didn't give up a TD for the second straight week. The defense has been playing more "bend don't break" than "break don't bend" for the first time in several years.
Offensively...just ugly. The offense was very similar to the Michigan State game. Rather than using Tyler Eifert as a receiving threat (Probably the best receiver on the team as a TE), he was kept in as a blocker the entire game outside of the lone pass he got on the final drive to seal the game. I don't care for this offense, but the result has been good protection. The receivers haven't stepped up very well, outside of a few big plays against Michigan State. The B1G teams have all been loading the box to shut down the running game and try to force the Irish to pass, and they've done well with that. The running game has been shut down, and the passing game isn't there yet, especially when Eifert is blocking.
Aside from that, didn't need the rain to cause turnovers it looks like. Weather was horribly wet and windy until about 3pm, then everything cleared up. All the students and several thousand fans wore leis for Te'o, it was pretty cool to see that support. The NCAA and university couldn't condone it, especially if they had Te'o's name on them, but student groups and others donated generic leis for the game in a movement that began just 3 days before the game.
Got a bye week this week, then Miami on Soldier Field.
